Gambling sessions typically include various winning gaming results and numerous losing gaming results that are each displayed on a gaming device. Since a portion of the winning gaming results are much larger in value than the wagers placed to reach those results, and because the overall payback percentage of the gaming device must be less than 100% to pay for the administrative costs of operating the gaming device, these gambling sessions usually include many more losing gaming results than winning gaming results.
As a consequence of this dichotomy, a great portion of time on a gaming device is spent watching reels spin (or poker hands played) with a resulting loss. For most players, the excitement and gratification of gambling is tied to achieving wins. While these players will endure certain periods of loss, players will often press the spin and/or bet buttons as quickly as possible to pass through the losses to get to another win. While it is in a casinos interest to provide as much excitement and entertainment as possible to its players, the casino must also limit the number of wins in order to cover costs and return a profit, which effectively limits how many wins can be paid to a player.
In all of today's games, losses take nearly as long as wins to display. While there is sometimes player anticipation tied to showing several reels with a particular symbol on a payline (or showing multiple cards needed for a large win in video poker) where the gaming result ultimately ends in a loss, most of the time it is quickly evident to the player that they have little or no chance of receiving a winning outcome. Once the player realizes that the current game will result in a loss, the player either has to wait for the remaining reels to come to rest or can sometimes “slam” the rest of the reels to a stop by hitting the spin button again before waiting for the game to reset and being able to initiate another game. Thus, with conventional gaming devices, players often spend a least half of their gambling sessions going through losing gaming results.
This problem is compounded by games that utilize player interactions. In addition to spending time displaying game events to the player, the gaming device must also wait for the player to make decisions during game play. Even when there is little hope of ending up with a winning outcome, these games must wait for a player to make decisions that in the end will not make much if any difference in the game outcome. From a player's perspective, these games can also be frustrating since they often times know that they have little chance of ending up with a winning game outcome. Hence, there exists a need for gaming devices that eliminates time spent on games with no or small wins while emphasizing games that have a greater chance of being profitable to the player. This increase in game speed simultaneously provides the standard games and paytables players prefer while increasing the hourly profits earned by casinos.